IGN Writer, Filip Miucin, Fired For Plagiarism

IGN Writer Filip Miucin fired over ‘Dead Cells’ review.

Plagiarism is a serious issue, which thankfully, mainstream media hasn’t been guilty of too often in the modern age. However, with an unprecedented amount of content being uploaded by creators every minute, from all over the world, it’s one that could easily go unnoticed when the target is “the little guy”.

IGN writer, Filip Miucin, decided to plagiarize YouTuber, BoomStick Gaming, on his review of Dead Cells. At first, it seems like it’s a coincidence, but as the videos progress it becomes clear that nearly all of the lines from the IGN video are copied, word from word, from the Boomstick Gaming review. By the end of the video, it feels like you’ve watched the same video, just on a different YouTube channel.

BoomStick went on to ask the internet, “I’ve been plagiarized, what do I do?”.

Well, he didn’t have to try and do much at all. His video went viral to the point IGN noticed. We have to give credit where credit was due. IGN acknowledged the complaint and responded quickly to removing the article and firing the writer for it.

BoomStick was kind and awfully generous in his video, stating he didn’t want the writer to be fired. But as many of you have known for some time, plagiarism is a big no-no, especially when all eyes are on you as an industry leader.

“Though our Dead Cells reviewer played the game and came away with glowing opinions of it — as did many of our other staff members — the review itself was simply not acceptable. We’ve parted ways with the writer involved in the review, and we will be re-reviewing Dead Cells this week.”

The company issued an apology to its’ readers, the game’s developer, and BoomStick Gaming, saying that “Nothing is more important to us than your trust.”.

In most cases, you would believe that the story just ends there and justice was served. But that’s not all!

A few days after the incident, Filip released a video where he told his side of the story and it seems like he is going to even apologize for his misdeeds… But throughout the entire video, he tries to downplay the situation as a big coincidence and unintentional and even had explanations for the similarities.

He also goes on to mention that people shouldn’t be attacking IGN since they had nothing to do with his allegations, to which we mostly agree. As an employer, they should be able to trust their employees to do the right thing. But they should also be implementing periodic quality checks on the content, properly cited sources, etc., rather than focusing solely on clicks and other various metrics. However, regardless of their current practices, they already get enough flack for their reviews. And we shouldn’t be getting out the pitchforks to target IGN on this one.

He also wraps up the video by praising BoomStick, and says what seems like slightly condescending words of encouragement towards him, but never admits his faults or apologizes to BoomStick for his misdeeds.

From this point on, he seems to be dancing around with some fancy footwork and ends up shoving his foot so far down his throat that he’s drowning on his own words. He makes a comment towards a Kotaku Reviewer, Jason Schreier, stating that he liked “Kicking people while they’re down” as a response to Jason’s recent article pointing out various other places that Filip has committed plagiarism in his works. The biggest mistake comes from Filip saying “So you can keep looking Kotaku and please let me know if you find anything,” which not only challenged Kotaku but also the rest of the Internet to find more examples of plagiarism in his works.

The whole thing has blown up in his face so badly that IGN pre-emptively went and scrubbed their entire site from anything ever written by Filip, and has decided to thoroughly investigate each of his reviews to ensure their authenticity.

Some people might say that plagiarism is not that big of a deal, but it really is.

First, it’s a matter of respect. You are taking credit for someone else’s hard work and it’s a slap in the face to that creator. It would be no different than copying someone else’s homework without their permission.

Secondly, the author of the original work (BoomStick) has the right to file a criminal complaint against Filip for committing plagiarism.

I’m a strict believer that you should always, ALWAYS give credit where credit is due because being a content creator is really hard stuff.

To wrap up this post about the whole mess Filip created, I want to blatantly point out the obvious that what he did was wrong. However, if you watch the “apology” (if you can call it that) through to the end of the video he talks about the harassment his friends and family have received from everything, just by being associated with him.

Did he mess up? Oh hell yeah.

Big time.

Like, the GRINCH wouldn’t even go near that with a 39 and a half foot pole.

But with something that can be settled civilly, between BoomStick and Filip, their lawyers and possibly a court, there’s no reason to send him or anyone in his circle of influence death threats. It should go without saying that sending a death threat IS ILLEGAL. He committed plagiarism, which is extremely petty theft at its finest. He didn’t kill kittens or something sadistic like that. Should he get shit for messing up? Sure. Do the modern thing and blast him on Twitter for messing up and educate him about how what he did is wrong. But death threats? Not cool. Come on people, we’re better than that!

Want to make the best out of a bad situation? Support your indie content creators. Support BoomStick to put some positivity out into the world for once. I’m sure he would appreciate it.

Besides, if BoomStick Gaming isn’t even mad about the issue, why are you?